Twyla Tharp Quotes

I think I've lived a pretty hard life. What I mean by hard is that... I've been kind of reckless with things. I'm a passionate person. I'm a super passionate person. I think there's definitely been sorrow in my life, good and bad. I think it comes through. I hope it comes through in my writing because to me that's what artistry is.

Dancing was my sport when I was younger. So I chose that over everything. And then, I just had to keep going because it became a competitive thing. But I'm not trying to impress anyone anymore. Dancing is more like my art, now.

I just want to keep being creative, and I want to feel inspired by a role, and I want to keep acting.

Maybe with boxing and good focus, I can fix myself and make my mother proud.

A revised schedule is to business what a new season is to an athlete or a new canvas to an artist.

I just want to make good music. That's it. That's what I care about.

To keep the edge, you just keep doing something new. I'm not gonna say that working is easy, but while I'm doing it, I'm just a happy little moron - that's how my girlfriend describes me. The fact that nothing might happen with those things is not the point. The point is, I'm doing new things, and I have a good feeling in my soul.

With every project you do, you bring out a part of yourself, and it seems to be quite a good way of expanding a person.

I am deeply in tune with my heart and core, and it's made me a better writer, artist, and most of all woman. It's made me more myself.

Songwriting is like going to church. I'm connecting to something, and it's rewarding in really important ways. I don't need to share it with anyone to feel good about it.

I'm coming up with new music, I'm in the best shape of my life, I'm real sharp, my energy is strong. I look at it as: I'm just following the energy. That's how I sum that up.

Why would a lazy guy become a parent of five? Then again, why would creative people who inherently don't like change and criticism become writers, actors, or comedians? There's something about this process. I joke about it: My kids have made me a better person, and I only need, like, 34 more of them to be a really good guy.

For me, a poem is an opportunity to kind of interrogate myself a little bit.

I always want to remain inspired.

Nearly all the things I do that are of any merit at all start off just being good fun, and I think I'm sort of building up to doing something else quite soon.

If you love something - and there are things that I love - you do want more and more and more of it, but that's not the way to produce good work.

I've always used poetry to explain myself to myself. These things just sat in my psyche and then came out.

Do what you love, and you will find the way to get it out to the world.

I've zeroed in on what you would call action and excellence... Everybody who does anything to try to succeed has to give the best of themselves, and art has made me pull the best out of myself.

Writing is a really good first step toward that goal of knowing yourself.

Because I'm so busy and because I think of myself as a painter, I desperately guard the time that I have to paint. And sometimes I'm irresponsible to my career in order to paint. Because painting is obsessive. I forget to eat. I forget to sleep.

I love life. I'm fascinated by human behavior because that feeds back into my work.

Every ten years a man should give himself a good kick in the pants.

Life obliges me to do something, so I paint.

The remarks about my reaching the age of Social Security and coming to the end of the road, they jolted me. And that was good. Because I sure as hell had no intention of just sitting around for the rest of my life. So I'd whip out the paints and really go to it.